The present invention relates to electric utility meters, and in particular meters having, or capable of receiving, electronic registers for performing advanced metering functions.
Traditional electric utility meters are electromechanical devices which derive information relating to the energy being supplied from a utility to a consumer and produce, by means of rotating pointers, an indication of the total energy consumed.
In recent years, there has been a demand for meters capable of performing advanced functions such as the recording of peak demand information, time of use information indicating energy consumption during specified time periods, and load profile information.
Generation of such information is best achieved with electronic circuitry which places the desired information in a readable form on a numeric display, i.e. a display such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) which displays at least numerals and possibly but not necessarily characters. It has already been proposed to provide a record of peak demand and time of use information by adding an electronic register to a standard meter. Electronic registers of this type are presently being offered by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and the General Electric Company, for example.
However, the electronic registers which have already been proposed suffer from the drawback that they must be installed in such a manner that they obscure the meter name plate information provided on the standard meter, which information should be readily accessible to a meter reader.
In addition, the electronic registers which have been proposed cannot be easily installed into a meter, or removed therefrom, in the field since the electrical connection of such registers to the meter is a difficult operation.
Furthermore, the registers which have already been proposed cannot be constructed &:o perform advanced functions while still being insertable into standard chassis.